NEW YORK - New York State Senator William Larkin has introduced a bill that would permit New York racetracks to run on Palm Sunday. The bill would keep intact the prohibition on racing on Easter Sunday and Christmas, however.
"Just Palm Sunday at this point," said Steve Casscles, an aide to Larkin. "One step at a time. We don't think we can do the others right now, and probably not for a while."
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Stanley Hough, after taking a break from training for much of 2001, is back in full force with a 25-horse stable at Belmont Park, plus an additional 10 horses stabled at Saratoga.
Hough has been firing strong at Aqueduct's spring meet, where through Friday he owned a record of 3-1-1 from eight starters.
Jeremy Rose had heard the horror stories. He was told over and over about how life changes for a young jockey after he loses his apprenticeship and the coveted five-pound weight allowance that goes with it.
He was told how for most newly turned journeyman riders business slows considerably. An apprentice who may have ridden seven or eight horses a day, is lucky to get three or four. And the caliber of stock changes, too. The short-priced favorites become double-digit longshots.
AUBURN, Wash. - Trainer Charlie Essex has the routine down pat for Handy N Bold, the certain favorite for Sunday's $35,000 Seattle Handicap at Emerald Downs.
Each spring Essex cranks his stable star up for a limited but intense campaign at Emerald Downs, and every fall he turns him out for an extended period of rest and recuperation so he can come back and do the same thing the next year.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - See How She Runs, who remained unbeaten in four career starts with her win in the Grade 2, $200,000 Fantasy on April 12, will likely start next in either the Grade 1, $250,000-added Selene Stakes at Woodbine on May 20, or the Grade 2, $200,000 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico on May 17.
See How She Runs is also under consideration for the $150,000 Stonerside Stakes over seven furlongs at her Lone Star Park base on May 25, but right now, trainer Donnie Von Hemel said he is more inclined to keep the filly racing around two turns.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Whether or not she goes on to win the $65,000 Nursery Stakes for 2-year-old fillies May 11, Global Finance forever will be remembered as the filly who was the object of a successful out-of-state gamble. Global Finance's odds to win plummeted from 9-2 to 2-5 during the running of the first race Wednesday, when $118,000 was bet on her to win in the final seconds before post time. The payoff shocked everyone, including the filly's trainer Jerry Dutton.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - At the age of 16, Harris Farms stallion Flying Continental is enjoying a revival.
Flying Continental, who has stood his entire stud career at Harris Farms in Coalinga, Calif., had some hard times early in his career when he failed to sire precocious 2-year-old runners. But he has proven himself a valuable sire of money-making handicap runners, and breeders have been taking note.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - What a difference a week makes.
Churchill Downs will open its 52-day spring meet Saturday with the Derby Trial, a race that once again offers very few clues to the colossus that comes one week later.
Not that the Trial - a Grade 3, $100,000, one-turn-mile - isn't a good race. It is. Cashel Castle, unbeaten in five starts, squares off against the speedy Mayakovsky in what shapes up as a nice-looking field of nine 3-year-olds.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The battles are fought on many fronts, from the yearling sales at Keeneland, to the historic racecourses throughout Europe. And now it is the May 4 Kentucky Derby, America's greatest race, that looms the latest site in the fevered competition between Sheikh Mohammed's Dubai-based Godolphin Racing Inc. and the Irish-based Coolmore partnership of John Magnier and Michael Tabor.
Each day through the Kentucky Derby, trainer Ken McPeek will share his thoughts with Marty McGee of Daily Racing Form in his Derby Diary. McPeek, 39, is the trainer of Harlan's Holiday, the race favorite.
I was born in Fort Chaffee, Ark., but only because my dad, Ron, was stationed there with the military during the Cuban missile crisis. His people were all from Lexington, and that's where I grew up.
